Friday, 30 December 2016

The figure in the back row 4th from left (photo below) is the same as the figure with his Colpack on the ground next to him (back row 5th from left), except that I stuck his Colpack on his head (bit of cutting and filing).

Ending with a 6 pounder style 'bang' then, that's the last post for me this year. :)

Thanks for looking and for all your comments and encouragement, and a happy new year to all!

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Here's the first units of my Guard Cavalry completed. From front to back are Grenadiers a Cheval, Empress Dragoons, and Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard.

I encountered a few dilemmas with these. First, ideally I would have preferred full dress versions, (which means a bit more white, tassels, and plumes). However, I sent an e-mail enquiry and Alan Perry said they wouldn't be doing full dress versions. Damn. But as the uniform is still pretty colourful even without the extra bits I thought they would be good enough, and better than alternatives at present (such as Front Rank, which while characterful in their own way, are a bit large and chunky in comparison to my other Perry figures unfortunately). Other manufacturers take note though, there seems to be a lack of Perry compatible French Guard in full dress...!

Another dilemma was painting one of the distinctive features of these regiments - the 'Aurore' colour on saddle cloth, braid and so on. This is a tricky French colour - 'dawn', referring to the orange, pinky, yellow colour of the sky at dawn. Though as I notice, that could be quite a few colours...

Here's a painting showing one interpretation of it. Looking on the internet you will find paintings, figures and re-enactors with a whole range of orange, pinky, yellow or gold colours.

Feeling pretty sure that just yellow wouldn't do, I went with a 50/50 mix of orange and pink, highlighted with golden yellow. These are Vallejo paints (and their "Heavy Orange" would also be a good base I think). This method also suited my aim of going a bit lighter to help correct for scale factors, for reasons I've described previously.

I also asked my wife what she would call the final colour, and she said "orange", which reassured me that the colour was not too yellow and distinctive enough from that seen on other units.

Onto some close ups. Here's the Grenadiers a Cheval of the Guard. Nicknamed "The Gods", "The Giants", or "The Big Boots", by the rest of the army. These are the "Old Guard" of the Guard Cavalry, wearing tall black bearskins and mounted on big black horses.

Coat colour is Vallejo Prussian Dark Blue highlighted with Vallejo Dark Blue. (The photos make colours a bit lighter than in real life.)

All flags are GMB, and you get all the flags for these three regiments in a single pack.

Next, here are the Dragoons of the Guard, also known as the Empress Dragoons in honour of Empress Josephine. They were similarly equipped to the Grenadiers a Cheval, but with brass helmet with horse hair mane and simulated leopard skin cover.

And lastly (for now), the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard. Another dilemma with these. I wanted them with their pelisses and wrote another e-mail to Perry enquiring if they came with them. Alan replied again and said no as they are in campaign dress so wouldn't have worn Pelisses except instead of the Dolman (jacket) on occasion. I said I'd like to have a go at converting to full dress versions, and he very kindly supplied the extra pelisses. Unfortunately I rapidly gave up on the idea of converting to full dress due to the challenge exceeding my skill... but I decided to keep the pelisses anyway, especially as they were glued on with epoxy glue already, ha. As my wife wisely said, they are Guard and can wear them if they want!

Coat and saddlecloth colour is a dark green highlighted with Vallejo German Camouflage Bright Green.

Pelisses add a bit more colour to the uniform and help confirm their Guard status!

So that's the first half of the Guard Cavalry done. Arguably a few other details could be varied/corrected, e.g. I think saddle cloths of some musicians/officers could be red. Not sure about the white Colpack on the Chasseur a Cheval musician either, but that seems to have been a thing (though not for the Grenadiers a Cheval musician). Also not sure top of Colpacks were red (the bag thing in full dress definitely was), though I've seen them done this way before. I might go back and add more detail to braid too. But never mind, I'm pretty happy with them all despite the troubles encountered and that's the important thing!

Thanks for looking! Still to come in an eventual Part 2 will be Polish and Dutch Lancers, and the Garde d'Honneur. Weirdly Perry do actually make a full dress variant for these lancers (and Garde d'Honneur will be made from a plastic Hussar set), so these next units will be even more colourful!

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

More of the Guard done. Tirailleurs and Voltigeurs of the Young Guard. These are Perry figures again, which have some nice animation in this march attack pose. Two of the officers were also swapped for ones from the officer pack to add more variety. Flags are GMB Young Guard fanions.

Tirailleurs.

Voltigeurs.

I actually need twice this number for the Leipzig order of battle, and aim to make the rest up with more Voltigeurs and the two units of Flanquers.

First French Guard Cavalry are also almost done and will be posted in next day or two, and also Guard Horse Artillery.

Monday, 17 October 2016

There's been a short break from Napoleonics while I painted up this Macedonian army for a local competition. I've played ancients for many years in 15mm but wanted to have a 28mm army as they look great and seem to be increasingly favoured in New Zealand. I've actually painted and sold two 15mm Macedonian armies over the last decade - and thought they deserved a 28mm outing third time around!

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Austrian 1st Uhlans. These models are another relatively new release from Perry Miniatures.

I love the Austrian 1st Uhlan uniform. The yellow Czapka is really distinctive and definitely one of my favourite uniforms.

Flag pennants from Aldopho Ramos, though I had to lighten up the yellow with highlights as it was quite dark.

The cords also had a very fine black hatching in real life, but given scale of figures and typical viewing difference (and consideration of my sanity!), I decided that trying to represent this detail effectively would be more time and trouble than it was worth.

Perry also released an Austrian Uhlan variant with falling plume that I didn't know existed. Great to see these ranges being filled out with these variations.

That's the last of the Austrian reinforcements for the moment but longer term more are planned. On to some Young Guard and some more French Allies next.

Saturday, 27 August 2016

More Austrians, some Jagers at last. A relatively recent release from Perry that I had been waiting for since starting the Austrians. Based up as skirmishers with three to a base, and will probably be used as two units most of the time.

These are great sculpts with plenty of action and variety. Six different rank and file, and six different command. Quite a dark uniform with the black webbing, but on the plus side that means it is quick to paint - not that this matters much when you need so few of them...

There seems to be some debate as to the shade of grey of the uniform, with a 'Pike Grey' mentioned. In plates and photos you see everything from quite a dark grey to a very light blue grey. I used a medium-light blue-grey. I thought afterwards I could have used something a bit more blue and a bit lighter. But my wife asked why they were blue when she saw them (having seen lots of white coats flowing off the desk with the Austrians), without me having said anything about them, which made up my mind that the grey was blue enough. :)

Edit: Thanks to someone on TMP who pointed out that the Officer sashes should be yellow rather than white, they have been corrected!

Wednesday, 24 August 2016

Reinforcements for the Austrians. Two regiments with 36 Hungarian infantry each. I think that up to about a quarter of Austrian Line was Hungarian at times, so about time I added a few!

These are Perry Miniatures Hungarians. Nice sculpts, though not the variety of pose some other packs have. There are six different head sculpts for the rank and file but same posture otherwise. A bit disappointing perhaps, though arms folded across the chest is actually pretty helpful in cutting down the amount of painting of straps and so on - I like this pose!

I added a mounted Hungarian Officer to this unit to provide a bit more variety, and the Hungarian Infantry command pack has six variants which add some further interest.

Once again, similar to the Grenz I complained about previously, I did battle with Hungarian trousers! However it went quicker this time. Painting a yellow clover, then with a toothpick dotting in the 3 black circles, and black lining. With fine braiding like this you need to do it in a way that is stylised to look good in 28mm. Thankfully the Perry castings are done with this braid in sharp relief to assist painting.

I also used the toothpick black dot technique for the rosette on the shako, and realised I need to go back and do this to hundreds of previous line infantry at some stage.... at least it is a quick and easy to do technique!

And here's the next regiment, with pink facings.

Glad to have this lot done! Some Austrian Jager and Uhlans will be up over the next few days.

About Me

Hi I'm Mark from New Zealand. I started Wargaming in the 1980's with the late and great Donald Featherstone's book "Wargames" and Esci and Airfix plastic Napoleonic figures. As a teenager I borrowed Don's book from the public library repeatedly, eventually finding others with the same interest. I've been hooked ever since, with Wargames Research Group's DBX series, and Games Workshop's Specialist Games also featuring prominently.